The reread review of the book I almost DNF'd due to Olaf being present. We begin this Hit List reread review with some chunks directly out of my notes (mostly because I don't want to rewrite the quote out).
It’s hopefully not an omen (it was) that my first note is about stupid, fucking Olaf. “Edward wanted me to encourage the attraction, because it was the closest to healthy Olaf had ever been around a woman, but we both agreed that the line between being Olaf’s serial killer girlfriend as we killed vampires together and triggering his own serial killer needs toward me, was probably a thin one.” This is gross and ya’ll just need to fucking kill the man. I don’t care how good he is at killing vampires. This is not safe in any sense and you just need to yeet Olaf off the damn planet. No. Fuck off with this.
Okay, seriously, the entire plot of this book grinds to a screeching, Olaf-shaped halt when this man is “on screen.” Edward and Anita have a literal phone conversation ✨in front of him✨ about his frigging dating habits/wants. Seriously? Ugh. No. Stop.
(End note chunk)
Olaf is clearly my main issue with Hit List. The rest of the book is mainly fine. I don’t exactly like the whole “come show me your power before I deal with you because I don't believe everything everyone else says about your metaphysical prowess” tiger bull-crap, but I’ll take it over Olaf. The action is good. I quite enjoyed the forest fight and the ending fight. I will say, too, this is not the first time nor the last where Anita has to be physically kidnapped to actually move the plot forward. So, that’s a thing I noticed this time around.
I had a note about Karlton and how she was essentially fridged. I didn’t and don’t think it’s a great look to do that to a Black woman. I had, at time of note-taking, forgotten that Karlton does show up later in the book. Her testing positive for lycanthropy does, however, set the stage for Marshals under the Preternatural Branch to be able to continue their work despite being lycanthropes, which is good overall, I think. Not super great from the Olaf standpoint of it all, but, apparently we can’t just kill him so… yeah. Also set up, not because of Karlton, is the deputizing thing. This is helpful in allowing Anita to bring along her bodyguards and "food" in the future, as well as having other characters "on-screen" more. Yay.
If you cut out the big chunks of Olaf (which I would very much like to do), Hit List is a fairly solid entry. It's always nice when the vampire hunting comes back into the picture as more than a blip or backstory.
Favorite Lines
"Then they must have already found it, because everyone looks for home in someone." - Ethan Flynn
"If you live through the disaster you still need to get groceries, do laundry. That's one of the hardest things to understand when you first get involved in violence. That once it's over the world goes on, and you have to go along with it." - Anita Blake
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